Masquerade: Bal des Ardents
by PlaidButterfly
Summary: Set in the alternate universe world of my larger 'fic, Masquerade. Ahsoka Tano explains to Leia exactly how she got her revenge on her former master, Vader, even as Vader is working for the Rebel Alliance.


**Author's Notes: **This one is from the little universe of my story Masquerade, but pretty far past what I've written already. It is somewhat tangential to the main storyline.

Basic summary is that it's an AU with a redeemed Vader who has switched sides to serve the Rebel Alliance.

More in depth summary is that it is revealed Palpatine shortchanged Vader greatly with armor, restricting his power, and made sure he stayed loyal with a mind-control serum; when he was 'rescued' by a group led by Ahsoka Tano (and given new state-of-the-art mechanics), this came to light, and so he is serving the Rebel Alliance out of guilt, and because Luke has been taken in his place and similarly drugged to serve Palpatine (though much more begrudgingly than Vader). It's only because of evidence of this serum that the Alliance accepts him. Leia has sort of unofficially become his 'handler', because although she hates him, she does remember Luke confessing to her that they are brother and sister (and that Vader is his father, and, therefore, her father) and so does her best to put up with him. This is set a bit after Ahsoka herself joins the Alliance properly.

And finally, on to the story.

* * *

Leia nervously tapped her fingers against the side of her cup as she paced back and forth. It was only a few more hours until they would drop out of hyperspace but she was starting to regret the monotony of the ship she had chosen to be on: a fighter a little larger than the Millennium Falcon, less cargo space, but a good gunship nonetheless. There was room enough, of course, but it didn't seem that way as she paced up and down the large arc of the bridge, fidgeting, unable to sleep.

The crew had long since decided that hyperspace meant a nap or a game of sabacc, and so it was just her awake - her and another. Ahsoka had, to Leia, an unnerving habit of not sitting on chairs but on the nearest perch, and currently the togruta was sitting legs-crossed atop one of the long lines of consoles, gazing out at the window and the sleek lines of hyperspace trailing around them like waves of a boat's wake. The silence between them was one of the things that bothered Leia the most. She was a senator, a politician, supposedly inbued with the gift of gab, and they were both women, which supposedly offered them some immediate common ground.

But the alien still sat with her back turned to Leia, dressed in her many scarves and fluttering robes layered on top of one another that made her look like some nightmare old crone from a storybook. It was fitting, Leia thought bitterly as she sipped her tea, to see them out on the battlefield, back to back: the black knight and the witch, come to burn the town and eat the children. The image made the bile rise in her throat until she gritted her teeth and remembered that, thankfully, they would only operate under the orders of the Alliance. And, she reflected as she paced, Ahsoka Tano was quiet and sometimes a bit confusing to understand, but she was not openly obnoxious or inclined to disagree. If anything Leia begrudgingly admitted the real possibility that they could be friends, even if it was merely because she was desperately looking for someone else to help her figure out the care and keeping of Vader.

As she turned to leave, nervously tapping at her cup, the older togruta woman stretched, placing her hands above her head to arch her back in a feline sort of movement. Her voice was pleasant, distinctly nonthreatening and gracious, as she spoke. "Please don't leave quite so soon, Senator Organa. I have something I would like to discuss with you."

Leia straightened a little, turning as Ahsoka did. The togruta now perched facing her, sitting with her feet pressed up against one another, not quite cross-legged but in a similar pose. Her smile was warm in a way that put Leia instantly at ease. "You asked me some time ago to help you... understand Anakin a bit better."

"Vader," Leia corrected slightly peevishly. Truthfully, she had not used the word 'understand' either, instead something much stronger in her frustration.

"Anakin."

"...Commander _Vader_."

They locked eyes a moment before Ahsoka graciously backed down, though only halfway. "...the Commander. Yes. ...It's taken me a bit of time to give you a good answer on how to... control him, as you said." Leia winced lightly at the word, but it was what she had said, and she boldly though that was exactly the problem. "I have been waiting for when you would be ready to accept the solution I've already given you." Enigmatic, but that was as usual. Leia was becoming convinced that an essential part of being a Jedi was learning how to speak in riddles, and part of her was already planning for when Luke was back with them - and was himself - so that she could recruit Han's help in slapping him over the head when he showed such tendencies to be as confusing as possible. She shook the thought off as Ahsoka nimbly slid down from her perch, motioning for her to follow as they talked.

"If you've already given me a solution, Miss Tano," Leia said dryly, trying to not be as irritated as she wanted to be, "I seem to have thoroughly missed it."

"Oh, you weren't supposed to be aware of it," Ahsoka said cheerfully. Leia gritted her teeth. Perhaps, if Luke ever got to speaking in riddles, they'd have to recruit Chewbacca into their plan as well to really make the point... "But I think you'll find it's already been done."

She gestured with a delicately-clawed red hand towards the droid bay. Leia gave a slow blink. It was really nothing out of the ordinary, she thought, looking at the row of astromech droids interrupted by a humanoid lump. As usual, Vader was resting, curled up with his knees to his chest and his head bowed; he had pulled the hood of his black cloak up and curled it around himself so that it honestly took her a moment to recognize his form as human. It was his usual spot on the ship; there were technically enough beds aboard the craft, but he had been adamant about sleeping there instead, and the crew quite readily went along with it because nobody was keen on him as a bunkmate. With a frustrated sigh, she looked to Ahsoka. "What am I supposed to be seeing here, Miss Tano?"

"Look more closely," she said enigmatically, her hand lazily drifting up to trace one of her facial markings with her fingertips as she thought.

Leia frowned, peering at the scene more closely. She had always assumed his insistance was part of the ongoing passive-aggressive war with Artoo. Almost all other members of the Alliance, including herself, had begrudgingly accepted that Vader was now part of them. They didn't like him, but he was useful, and respectable in that sense. But the little astromech droid had been petty and vengeful, and more than once she had seen Vader storm after Artoo after the droid stole some part neccessary for him to repair his arm or leg or whatever had been injured in that day's fighting. Similarly, Threepio was always happy to inform her how shocked he was at Artoo's language whenever Vader retaliated with a carefully planted low-pulse ionic mine. Certainly she had listened to Threepio be amazed and alarmed at Artoo when Vader first took up residence in the row usually reserved for docking astromech droids. Blankly, she stared back at Ahsoka, shaking her head a little.

"Think back to what you've told him," Ahsoka prodded gently, but Leia again shook her head, finding nothing. The togruta didn't seem frustrated. If anything she gave another little smile before flexing her hands out in front of her, stretching momentarily. "Then I suppose I'll have to explain more thoroughly. ...I think you've known ever since you heard of my little organization that my motives were not and never will be entirely pure," she said, sounding almost amused. "Part of me wanted to help my former master, yes, but mostly, at that moment, I wanted revenge." She talked as casusally as if she were discussing the weather, making Leia feel uneasy.

"I still don't understand."

"It's very simple, Senator Organa. You were the instrument of my revenge," the togruta woman said cheerfully.

Leia gave a slow blink, then a mirthless laugh. "Come again?"

She gestured for them to walk a little more, pacing the deserted ship. "You should already know that the best way to exact revenge is not through physical violence, but -" her hand drifted towards her temple - "mental, spiritual. You can break a man's body and not have anything worthwhile done, but if you break his soul..." Leia had not noticed until that point exactly how many little fangs a togruta had, and Ahsoka's smile was most decidedly a predators.

"I... I still don't see what this has to do with _me_," Leia said quickly, fighting the nervousness bubbling up in her throat.

Ahsoka gave a low laugh, half closing her eyes as she abruptly stopped in the corridor. "I knew you'd done it today, finally. It's very clever of you." She continued to talk despite Leia's distressed and confused expression. "You're very skilled with words, Senator. I knew I had to trust a politician to break him."

"_Break_ him?" Leia crowed, bristling. "The Alliance does not condone torture, Miss Tano, you should -"

"Not torture. More subtle." She was still smiling with that irritating little girlish laugh.

"Well, whatever it was, I was certainly not part of it," Leia declared, crossing her arms over her chest.

All Ahsoka did in response was laugh more shrilly. "Please, stop being so disgusted." Her tone was almost teasing. "Be honest, Senator Organa, if I had told you that you could break the spirit of the man who killed Alderaan, the man who has slaughtered so many Alliance soldiers... if I had told you that you could easily get revenge on Darth Vader, you would have said yes."

"I wouldn't have!" Leia snapped defensively. But the bitter taste in her mouth made her realize that her answer probably would have been yes if she was asked. It was as if the togruta woman knew this, and she laughed again.

"You have and you did. An excellent, excellent job, too," she gushed with praise that just made Leia feel more uncomfortable. "Better than I ever could have done."

"I.." She blinked hard, gulping. "I still don't see how, exactly, I've accomplished such a task," Leia said after a moment, letting sarcasm slip into her voice.

"You accomplished it when you told a rusted old battle-droid his place," the alien said smoothly, giving another bright smile. Leia gulped strongly, blinking fast, trying to think of something to say, but the togruta had already turned away: "Good evening, Senator. I'll see you when we've docked."

Whatever denial she had prepared had died on her tongue, and as Leia turned hard on her heel to walk in the opposite direction, she gulped and made faces as if the realization were as bad as tasting ashes. It was nonsensical to her at first, but there had been an icy shard of discomfort in her gut when Ahsoka pointed it out.

Of course Leia was always looking for some way to control him, the verbal equivalent of giving an unruly pet a sharp pop of the leash; she thought it was only natural. But as she cast her memory back she gave an uncomfortable gulp. What had been the words, exactly, as she snarled back at him in as ladylike a way as possible? _...but remember, to the Alliance, you are only a war droid, nothing more!_ - Yes, that, or something like it. The words had actually given him pause, a minor victory. But he had quickly started parroting the insult back at her sardonically. He was a war droid, not a protocol droid, of course he would be abrasive and insulting. Of course he would follow orders annoyingly closely, he was just a stupid clanker. No, he would never eat in the mess hall, droids weren't allowed.

At the time she had thought it was just something to aggravate her, drawing out the argument. But the uncomfortable, icy shard in her chest embedded more fully as she realized how he had carried through each threat. He had defended it vaguely with how it was more convenient for self-repairs, but he had given up his regular cot at the base for a pallet at the back of one of the workshops, and he had stopped even requesting that regular meals be brought to him, simply existing on the packets of mineral-and-vitamin perfectly-balanced sludgey goo that was formulated for soldiers in the field. Most importantly, he had stopped trying to get along with anyone - or even interact with them. She had assumed that his lack of arguing was a good thing, and Leia was starting to realize how naiive she was.

She slowed down at the door to the droid bay, peering in it again. Vader was still there, his shoulders rising and falling with each breath. He had shifted so that his hood was half fallen down, a few loose curls of his hair spilling out from underneath it. Leia's hand clenched the doorframe and she shifted from foot to foot, watching him. Part of her wanted to try and find words to apologise. Part of her recognized that destroying someone's soul and making them believe that they were subhuman was a terrible punishment no-one deserved.

But even as she tried to find words, they never escaped her lips in more than a whisper that she knew would not wake him. Eventually, she turned away, unable to do anything more than admit how Ahsoka was right.


End file.
